History of California, Volume VI, Part 13

Author: Bancroft, Hubert Howe
Publication date: 1885-1890
Publisher: San Francisco, Calif. : The History Company, publishers
Number of Pages: 816

USA > California > History of California, Volume VI > Part 13

Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).

12 Among the publications of the hour were: California, and the Way to Get there; with the Official Documents Relating to the Gold Region. By J. Ely Sherwood, New York, 1848. This for the outside title. The second title says California, her Wealth and Resources; with Many Interesting Facts rexpecting the Climate and People. Following a letter dated Sutter's Fort, Aug. 11, 1848, giving the experiences of a digger, are a few pages smattering of Mexican life. Then come Larkin's letters to Buchanan, and Mason's report, everywhere printed. 'All that portion of the president's message which relates to California' is next given; after which we have a 'Description of the Gold Region,' in which there is no description whatever, a letter of Walter Colton, extracts from the N. Y. Journal of Commerce and Sun, fur- ther correspondence and description, and the memorial of Aspinwall, Stephens, and Chauncey to congress on a proposed Pacific railway. On the last page of the cover are printed from the N. Y. Herald ' Practical Suggestions to Persons about to Cross the Isthinus of Panama.' The whole comprises an Svo pam- phlet of 40 pages, exclusive of the cover. The following year the work assumes a 12mo form of 98 pages in a paper cover, and is called The Pocket-Guide to California; A Sea and Land Route-Book, Containing a Full Description of the El Dorado, its Agricultural Resources, Commercial Advantages, and Mineral Wealth; including a Chapter on Gold Formations; with the Congressional Map, and the Various Routes and Distances to the Gold Regions. To Which is Added

118

BROADER EFFECTS OF THE GOLD DISCOVERY.

women caught the infection, despite press and pulpit warnings. After a parting knell of exhortation for calm and contentment, even ministers and editors shelved their books and papers to join foremost in the throng. Hitherto small though sure profits dwindled into insignificance under the new aspect, and the trader closed his ledger to depart; and so the toil- ing farmer, whose mortgage loomed above the grow- ing family, the briefless lawyer, the starving student, the quack, the idler, the harlot, the gambler, the hen- pecked husband, the disgraced; with many earnest, enterprising, honest men and devoted women. These and others turned their faces westward, resolved to stake their all upon a cast; their swift thoughts, like the arrow of Acestes, taking fire as they flew. Stories exaggerated by inflamed imaginations broke the calm of a million hearts, and tore families asunder, leaving

Practical Advice to Voyagers. New York, J. E. Sherwood, publisher and proprietor; California, Berford & Co., and C. W. Holden, San Francisco, 1849. This is a work of more pretensions than the first edition. The first 19 pages are geographical, in the compilation of which Bryant and others are freely drawn from. Letters from Folsom to Quartermaster Jesup, printed originally in the Washington Globe, are added. Thirty-one pages of advertisements were secured, which are at once characteristic and interesting, The Union India Rubber Company, beside portable boats and wagon-floats, offers tents, blank- ets, and all kinds of clothing. Californians are urged to insure their lives and have their daguerreotypes taken before starting. Then there are Californian houses, sheet-iron cottages of the most substantial character, at three days' notice, built in sections; 'oil-cloth roofs at thirty cents per square yard;' bags, matches, boots, drugs, guns, beside outfits comprising every conceiv- able thing to wear, mess hampers, and provisions. Haven & Livingston advertise their express, Thomas Kensett & Co., and Wells, Miller, & Provost, their preserved fresh provisions; E. N. Kent, tests for gold; half a dozen their gold washers, and fifty others fifty other things. By advertising U. S. passports, Alfred Wheeler intimates that they are necessary. A. Zuru- atuza, through his agents, John Bell at Vera Cruz and A. Patrullo, New York, gives notice of 'the pleasantest and shortest route to California through Mex- ico.' With neither author's name nor date, but probably in Dec. 1848, was issued at Boston, California Gold Regions, With a Full Account of its Mineral Resources; How to Get there and What to Take; the Expense, the Time, and the Various Routes, etc. Anything at hand, printed letters, newspaper articles, and compilations from old books, were thrown in to make up the 48 pages of this publication. Yet another book appeared in Dec. 1848, The Gold Regions of California, etc., edited by G. G. Foster, 80 pages, Svo, with a map; the fullest and most valuable eastern publication on Cal. of that year. Beside the official reports so often referred to, there is a letter from A. Ten Eyck, dated S. F., Sept. Ist, and one from C. Allyn dated Monterey, Sept. 13th. There are also extracts from Cal. and eastern newspapers, and from Greenhow, Darby, Wilkes, Cutts, Mofras, Emory, and Farnham.

119

STIMULATION OF INDUSTRIES.

sorrowing mothers, pining wives, neglected children, with poverty and sorrow to swell their anguish; the departed meanwhile bent on the struggle with fortune, faithful or faithless; a few to be successful, but a far greater number to sink disappointed into nameless graves.

And still the gossips and the prophets raved, and newspapers talked loudly and learnedly of California and her gold-fields, assisting to sustain the excite- ment.13 It is no exaggeration to say that, in the great seaport towns at least, the course of ordinary business was almost thrown out of its channels. "Bakers keep their ovens hot," breaks forth Greeley, "night and day, turning out immense quantities of ship-bread without supplying the demand; the pro- vision stores of all kinds are besieged by orders. Manufacturers of rubber goods, rifles, pistols, bowie- knives, etc., can scarcely supply the demand." All sorts of labor-saving machines were invented to facil- itate the separation of the gold from gravel and soil. Patented machines, cranks, pumps, overshot wheel attachments, engines, dredges for river-beds, supposed to be full of gold, and even diving-bells, were made and sold. Everything needful in the land of gold, or what sellers could make the buyers believe would be needed, sold freely at high prices. Everything in the shape of hull and masts was overhauled and made ready for sea. Steamships, clippers, schooners, and brigs sprang from the stocks as if by the magician's wand, and the wharves were alive with busy workers. The streets were thronged with hurrying, bustling pur- chasers, most of them conspicuous in travelling attire of significant aspect, rough loose coats and blanket robes meeting high hunting-boots, and shaded by huge felt hats of sombre color. A large proportion

13 'It is coming-nay, at hand,' cried Horace Greeley, in the N. Y. Tribune; 'there is no doubt of it. We are on the brink of the Age of Gold! We look for an addition, within the next four years, equal to at least one thousand millions of dollars to the general aggregate of gold in circulation and use throughout the world. This is almost inevitable.'

120

BROADER EFFECTS OF THE GOLD DISCOVER

bore the stamp of countrymen or villagers, who had formed parties of from ten to over a hundred members, the better to face the perils magnified by distance, and to assist one another in the common object. The im- mediate purpose, however, was to combine for the purchase of machinery and outfit, and for reduced passage rates. Indeed, the greater part of the emi- grants were in associations, limited in number by district clanship, or by shares ranging as high as $1,000 each, which in such a case implied the purchase of the vessel, laden with wooden houses in sections, with mills and other machinery, and with goods for trade.14 In some instances the outfit was provided by a few men; perhaps a family stinted itself to send one of its members, often a scapegrace resolved upon a new life; or money was contributed by more cautious stayers-at-home for proxies, on condition of heavy re- payment, or labor, or shares in profits;15 but as a rule, obligations broke under the strain of varied attractions on the scene, and debtors were lost in the throng of the mines.16 The associations were too unwieldy and

14 Among the many instances of such associations is the one entitled Ken- nebec Trading and Mining Co., which sailed in the Obed Mitchel from N. Bedford on March 31, 1849, arrived at S. F. on Sept. 17th, laid out the town of New York, placed the steamer Gov. Dana for river traffic, opened a saw- mill, etc. Boynton's MS., 1 et seq. The Mattapan and Cal. Trading and Mining Co., of 42 members, left Boston in the Ann. Strout's recollections, in S. F. Post, July 14, 1877; the Linda Mining and Dredging Assoc. started in the bark Linda, with a steamboat and a dredger, the latter for scooping up the metal. Other notable companies were those by the Edward Everett, of 152 members, which left Boston in Dec. 1848; Robert Browne, which left New York in Feb. '49, with 200 passengers; the Matthewson party, from New York, in March; the Warren party of 30 members, from New York, in Feb .; the Mary Jane party. One party of seven left Nantucket in Dec. 1849, in the Mary and Emma, of only 44 tons, and arrived safely after 149 days. Others were known by the names of the town or county in which they organ- ized, as Utica, Albany, Buffalo. See details of outfit, passage, etc., in W'ar- ren's Dust and Foam, 12 et seq. ; Matthewson's Statement, MS., 1-3; Cerruti's Ramblings, MS., 94, and later MS. references; also recollections printed in different journals, as San José Pioneer, Dec. 8, 1877, etc .; Sac. Record-Union, July 7, 1875, Nov. 26, 1878, etc .; Shasta Courier, March 25, 1865, March 16, 1867; Stockton Indep., Nov. 1, 1873; Alta Cal., passim; Placer Times, Apr. 28, 1849; Brown's Statement, MS., 1; Hunt's Merch. Mag., xxx. 55-64, xxxii. 354-5; Larkin's Doc., vi. 185, 198, etc.

15 Crosby, Events Cal., MS., 26, was deputed by others to report on the field.

16 Large sums were recklessly advanced to individuals as well as societies by rich men, stricken by the fever, but declining to go in person. Probably

121

OVERLAND TRAVEL.

too hastily organized, with little knowledge of mem- bers and requirements, the best men being most eager to escape the yoke.

The overland route was the first to suggest itself, in accordance with American pioneer usage, but this could not be attempted during winter. The sea was always open, and presented, moreover, a presumably swifter course, with less preparations for outfit. The way round Cape Horn was well understood by the coast-dwellers, who formed the pioneers in this move- ment, familiar as they were with the trading vessels and whalers following that circuit, along the path opened by Magellan, and linked to the explorations of Cortés and Cabrillo. There were also the short-cuts across Panamá, Nicaragua, and Mexico, now becoming familiar to the people of the United States through the agitation for easy access to the newly acquired possessions on the Pacific. For all these vessels offered themselves; and in November 1848 the move- ment began with the departure of several vessels. In December it had attained the dimensions of a rush. From New York, Boston, Salem, Norfolk, Philadel- phia, and Baltimore, between the 14th of December, 1848, and the 18th of January, 1849, departed 61 sailing vessels, averaging 50 passengers each, to say nothing of those sent from Charleston, New Orleans, and other ports. Sixty ships were announced to sail from New York in the month of February 1849, 70 from Philadelphia and Boston, and 11 from New Bed- ford. The hegira continued throughout the year, and during the winter of 1849 and the spring of 1850

nine out of ten of such loans were lost, less through actual dishonesty than through the extravagant habits among miners, who improvidently reckoned on a future rich find for such demands. Few of the companies held together, even till Cal. was reached; none that I have ever heard of accomplished any- thing, as an original body, in the mines or towns. If they did not quarrel on the way and separate at any cost, as was generally the case, they found on reaching Cal. that a company had no place there. Every miner was for him- self, and so it was with mechanics and laborers, who, if willing to work for wages, received such dazzling offers as to upset all previous calculations and invents. See Ashley's Journey, MS., 223, etc.

122

BROADER EFFECTS OF THE GOLD DISCOVERY.

250 vessels sailed for California from the eastern ports of the United States alone, 45 of which arrived at San Francisco in one day.17

In order to supply this demand, shipping was di- verted from every other branch of service, greatly to the disarrangement of trade, the whaling business especially being neglected for the new catch.18 Old condemned hulks were once more drawn from their re- tirement, anything, in fact, that could float,19 and fitted with temporary decks to contain tiers of open berths, with tables and luggage-stands in the centre.20 The provisions were equally bad, leading in many cases to intense suffering and loss by scurvy,21 thirst, and starvation; but unscrupulous speculators cared for nothing save to reap the ready harvest; and to secure passengers they hesitated at no falsehood. Although aware that the prospect of obtaining transportation from Panamá and other Pacific ports was very doubt- ful, they gave freely the assurance of ample connec- tions, and induced thousands to proceed to these half-

17 Nouvelles Annales des Voyages, cxx. 362-5; Larkin's Docs, MS., vi. 195; Polynesian, Apr. 14, 1849; Stillman's Golden Fleece, 19-27. Two of the Nov. departures arrived at S. F. in April 1849; in June came 11, in July 40, in August 43, in Sept. 66, after which the number fell off, giving a total of 233 from American ports for nine months; 316 arrived from other ports, or 549 in all. Placer Times, ii. no. 62; N. Y. Herald, Apr. 13, 1850; Barstow's Stat., MS., 1; Barnes' Or. and Cal., MS., 20; Dean's Stat., MS., 1; Moore's Pio. Exp., MS., 1; Winans' Stat., MS., 1-3; Neall's Stat., MS .; Wheaton's Stat., MS., 2-3; Doolittle's Stat., MS., 21; Bolton vs U. S., SS; Fay's Stat., MS., 1; Picture Pion. Times, MS., 145-7. The journals above quoted, notably Alta Cal. and Record-Union; also West Coast Signal, Apr. 15, 1874; Santa Cruz Times, Feb. 19, 1870; Humboldt Times, Mar. 7, 1874; Antioch Ledger, Dec. 24, 1870, together with allnsions to voyage. The length of passage averaged about four months. Later it was made more than once by the Flying Cloud from New York in 893 days. See Alta Cal., July 12, 1865; S. F. Directory, 1852, 10, etc.

18 By the withdrawal of 71 ships. Alta Cal., June 6, 1850.

19 Barnes, in his Or. and Cal., MS., mentions an old Mexican war trans- port steamer, which in the winter of 1849-50 used to ply between New Orleans and Chagres, and which was so rotten and leaky that she wriggled and twisted like a willow basket.

20 Borthwick's MS., 3-5. One vessel of only 44 tons left Nantucket; another passed through the lakes, Hunt's Mag., xxi. 585; a third was an ex- slaver. Bluxome's MS., 1.

21 Ryan, Pers. Adcen., ii. 273-5, relates that the Brooklyn set out with an insufficient supply, and although offered $500, the captain refused to touch at any of the South American ports for additions. At Rio de Janeiro several received welcome from Dom Pedro. Alta Cal., Mar. 29, 1876.

123

THE PASSAGE BY WATER.

way stations, only to leave them there stranded. A brief period of futile waiting sufficed to exhaust the slender means of many, cutting off even retreat, and hundreds were swept away by the deadly climate.22 Expostulations met with sneers or maltreatment, for redress was hopeless. The victims were ready enough to enter the trap, and hastened away by the cheapest route, regardless of money or other means to proceed farther, trusting blindly, wildly, to chance.

The cost of passage served to restrict the propor- tion of the vagabond element; so that the majority of the emigrants belonged to the respectable class, with a sprinkle of educated and professional men, and mem- bers of influential families, although embracing many characterless persons who fell before temptation, or entered the pool of schemers and political vultures.23 The distance and the prospective toil and danger again held back the older and less robust, singling out the young and hardy, so that in many respects the flower of the population departed. The intention of most being to return, few women were exposed to the hardships of these early voyages. The coast-dwellers predominated, influenced, as may be supposed, by the water voyage, for the interior and western people preferred to await the opening of the overland route, for which they could so much better provide them- selves. 24

Although the Americans maintained the ascend- ancy in numbers, owing to readier access to the field

22 See protest in Panamá Star, Feb. 24, 1849.

23 White, Pion. Times, MS., 190-5, estimates the idle loungers at less than ten per cent, and 'gentlemen' and politicians at the same proportion. The N. Y. Tribune, Jan. 26, 1849, assumes that the cost of outfit kept back the rowdies. The Annals of S. F., 665, etc., is undoubtedly wrong in ascribing low character, morals, and standing to a large proportion, although it is natural that men left without the elevating influence of a sufficiently large number of women should have yielded at times to a somewhat reckless life. Willey, in his Per. Mem., MS., 25, thus speaks of the New Orleans emigration of 1848: 'It was only the class most loose of foot who could leave on so short a notice. It was largely such as frequented the gambling-saloons under the St Charles, and could leave one day as well as another.' See also Crosby's Events, MS., 2-3; Van Allen, Stat., MS., 31; Larkin's Doc., MS., vi. 185, 198, 251.

24 New Yorkers predominated 'twice told probably.' Ryckman's MIS., 20; Nantucket alone lost about 400 men. Placer Times, Dec. 1, 1849.

124

BROADER EFFECTS OF THE GOLD DISCOVERY.

by different routes, and to which they were entitled by right of possession, the stream of migration from foreign countries was great, a current coming to New York and adjoining ports to join the flow from there. The governments of Europe became alarmed, actuated as they were by jealousy of the growing republic, with its prospective increase of wealth, to the confounding of finance, perhaps to culminate in a world's crisis.25 Before the middle of January 1849 no less than five different Californian trading and mining companies were registered at London, with an aggre- gate capital of £1,275,000; and scarcely was there a European port which had not at this time some vessel fitting out for California. 26

Among Asiatic nations, the most severely affected by this western malady were the Chinese. With so much of the gambling element in their disposition, so much of ambition, they turned over the tidings in their minds with feverish impatience, whilst their neighbors, the Japanese, heard of the gold discovery with stolid indifference.27 Yet farther east by way of west, to that paradise of gamblers, Manila, went

25 Russia, France, and Holland seriously considered the monetary question, and the latter went so far as to bring in force an obsolete law, which enabled her to sell, at the highest price, all the gold in the bank of Amsterdam, so that she might lay in a stock of silver.

26 " Du Havre et de Bordeaux, de plusieurs ports espagnols, hollandais, allemands, et de presque tous les principaux ports de la Grande-Bretagne, on announce des départs pour San Francisco. Un bâtiment à vapeur doit même partir de Londres et doubler le cap Horn. Revue des Deux Mondes, Feb. 1, 1849; Polynesian, May 12, 1849. Says the London Times: 'There are at this moment two great waves of population following toward the setting sun over this globe. The one is that mighty tide of human beings which, this year, be- yond all former parallel, is flowing from Ireland, Great Britain, Germany, and some other parts of Europe, in one compact and unbroken stream, to the United States. The other, which may almost be described as urged on by the former, is that which that furions impulse auri sacra fames is attracting from comfortable homes to an almost desert shore.' Several hundred Mormons left Swansea in Feb. 1849 for Cal. Placer Times, Oct. 13, 1849. Concerning the French migration, see S. F. Picayune, Nov. 27, 1850; Cal. Courier, Nov. 28, Dec. 3, 1850. Many banished army officers came. Hungarian exiles in Iowa pro- posed to come in 1850. S. D. Arch., 367; Polynesian, vii. 131.

27 An English steamer arrived from Canton direct as early as Oct. 1849. On Feb. 1, 1849, there were 54 Chinamen in Cal., and by Jan. 1, 1850, the number had swollen to 791, and was rapidly rising, till it passed 4,000 by the end of 1850. Alta Cal., May 10, 1852; Williams' Stat., 12. In Brooks' App. Stat., 115, the number for 1849-50 is reduced to 770 by their consul.

125

FROM FAR AWAY.

the news, and for a time even the government lotter- ies were forgotten.28 And the gold offered by ship- masters to the merchants of the Asiatic coast raised still higher the fever in the veins of both natives and English. 29

Not less affected were the inhabitants of the Mar- quesas Islands. Those of the French colony who were free made immediate departure, and were quickly followed by the military, leaving the governor alone to represent the government. On reaching Australia the news was eagerly circulated and embellished by ship-masters. The streets of the chief cities were placarded, "Gold! Gold! in California!" and soon it became difficult to secure berths on departing vessels.30 And so in Peru and Chile, where the California reve- lation was unfolded as early as September 1848 by Colonel Mason's messenger, on his way to Washing- ton, bringing a large influx in advance of the dominant United States emigration.31 Such were the world currents evoked by the ripple at Coloma.

28 Zamacois, Hist. Mex., x. 1141. Says Coleman, The Round Trip, 28, who happened to be at Manila in the spring of 1848 when the Rhone arrived from S. F., 'She brought the news of the gold discoveries, and fired the colony with the same intense desire that inflamed the Spaniards of the 16th century.' 29 Leese was about to sail for Manila in March, and from there take in a cargo of rice for Canton. Sherman's Mem., i. 65.

30 Barry's Ups and Downs, 92-3, and Larkin's Docs, MS., vii. 80. 'Eight vessels have left that hot-bed of roguery-Sidney,' Placer Times, June 2, 1849, and with them came a mass of delectable 'Sidney coves.' The press sought naturally to counteract the excitement and make the most of some local gold finds. See Melbourne Herald, Feb. 6, 7, 10, 1849.

31 Vessels sent to Valparaiso for flour brought back large numbers to Cal. Findla's Stat., MS., 7; King's Rept, in U. S. Gov. Docs, 31st cong. Ist sess., H. Ex. Doc. 59, 26. The arrival of the Lambayecana of Colombia with gold-dust caused no small excitement in Payta, and the news of the discovery soon spread; on the 15th of January, 1849, when the California arrived at Panama, she had some 75 Peruvians on board. Willey's Per. Mem., MS., 60. 'It is reported here that California is all gold,' writes Atherton from Valparaiso, Sept. 10th, to Larkin. 'Probably a little glitter has blinded them. The gold-dust received per brig J. R. S. sold for 22 reales per castellano of 21 qui- lates fine, this having exceeded the standard about 1} quilates, netted 23 reales per castellano, being nearly $17.50 per ounce.' Larkin's Docs, MS., vi. 173. In Aug. Larkin entered into partnership with Job F. Dye, who about the middle of Sept. sailed with the schooner Mary down the Mexican coast, tak- ing with him placer gold.

CHAPTER VIII.

THE VOYAGE BY OCEAN 1848-1849.

MODERN ARGONAUTS-PACIFIC MAIL STEAMSHIP COMPANY-ESTABLISHMENT OF THE MAIL LINE FROM NEW YORK VIA PANAMA TO OREGON -- SAIL- ING OF THE FIRST STEAMERS-SAN FRANCISCO MADE THE TERMINUS- THE PANAMA TRANSIT-THE FIRST RUSH OF GOLD-SEEKERS-DISAP- POINTMENTS AT PANAMÁ-SUFFERINGS ON THE VOYAGE-ARRIVALS OF NOTABLE MEN BY THE FIRST STEAMSHIP.

SINCE the voyage of the Argonauts there had been no such search for a golden fleece as this which now commanded the attention of the world. And as the adventures of Jason's crew were the first of the kind of which we have any record, so the present impetuous move was destined to be the last. Our planet has become reduced to a oneness, every part being daily known to the inhabitants of every other part. There is no longer a far-away earth's end where lies Colchis close-girded by the all-infolding ocean. The course of our latter-day gold-fleece seekers was much longer than Jason's antipodal voyage; indeed, it was the longest possible to be performed on this planet, leading as it did through a wide range of lands and climes, from snow-clad shores into tropic lati- tudes, and onward through antarctic dreariness into spring and summer lands. In the adventures of the new Argonauts the Symplegades reappeared in the gloomy clefts of Magellan Strait; many a Tiphys relaxes the helm, and many dragons' teeth are sown. Even the ills and dangers that beset Ulysses' travels, in sensual circean appetites, lotus-eating indulgence,

Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.

History of California, Volume VI, Part 13

Author: Bancroft, Hubert Howe Publication date: 1885-1890 Publisher: San Francisco, Calif. : The History Company, publishers Number of Pages: 816

Author: Bancroft, Hubert Howe
Publication date: 1885-1890
Publisher: San Francisco, Calif. : The History Company, publishers
Number of Pages: 816